
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 17, 1993                   TAG: 9309180026
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Paul Dellinger
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AN ACTOR FOR ALL SEASONS

Johnny Weissmuller will always be Tarzan, Basil Rathbone will always be Sherlock Holmes, Clayton Moore will always be the Lone Ranger, and Raymond Burr will always be Perry Mason _ though all those characters have been played by a variety of actors.

Burr, who died Sept. 12y at age 76, was busy in movies for a decade before being tapped as the lawyer-sleuth for the 1957-1974 TV series. Usually playing a mobster, he also made westerns (such as "Station West" and "A Man Alone"), comedies (with Bob Hope in "Casanova's Big Night," Lucille Ball in "The Magic Carpet" and the Marx Brothers and Marilyn Monroe in "Love Happy" not to mention "Airplane II") and flicks from "Godzilla" to "Tarzan and the She-Devil."

John Larkin had played Perry Mason on radio (in a daily soap opera which became a TV series, "The Edge of Night," with the names of the characters changed) and Monte Markham in TV's "The New Perry Mason."

But it wasn't until Burr returned that a TV revival succeeded. The old show is still around in re-runs. Some episodes feature John Larkin, radio's Mason, being cross-examined by Burr. In one, Burr even nails his predecessor as the killer.

by CNB